How much Oracle DBA is to know of SAN Part 1 Srinivas Maddali

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1 How much Oracle DBA is to know of SAN Part 1 Srinivas Maddali Abstract Motivation: Every Oracle DBA is a trustee and protector of the business data. To do his job, he has to understand his complex environment, in which the data is stored. SAN, NAS and many more new concepts are coming into play. SAN storage and EMC solutions as offered to multiple solutions for Oracle for backup, restore recover and refresh methodologies that offer wide variety of benefits. Problem Statement: To reduce multiple failure points and vendor management and/or to reduce the time and resources required for the maintenance activities like backups which provide images of the database that can be used to provide business a restartable copy of the database either to troubleshoot /test a business process before impacting the production or to provide a backup to business data. Tapes and Optical devices have been the solutions provided by the Media Management Layer (MML) vendors. Tapes are sequentially accessed and not randomly. Any block corruption caused the tape useless and the incidence is high. There is always risk and MML vendors developed capability to write to multiple tapes and devices at a time to reduce the risk of logical or physical corruption of the data saved to the devices. Solution as provided by Oracle Oracle 7.0 has changed the world of backup by introducing online backup methodology. Oracle 8.0 has provided a utility that changed user managed backup and recovery methodology and reduced the backup and recovery times drastically. Solution Oracle and MML Dependency of Oracle on Media Management Layers (MML) as provided by Veritas (netbackup), Tivoli, and Legato and like. This dependency is taken care by Oracle as it introduced Secure Backup ( This tool is to still catch up. Tapes and other optical devices used to store backup images have provided portability and saved storage when it was a critical piece of the architectural and infrastructural provision. Solution SAN and NAS EMC and other storage vendors On the storage front the Hard Disk space is becoming cheaper and cheaper and EMC and other vendors are providing multiple solutions that attempt to give back the business as much time and resources as possible. Discussion in this article is limited to EMC solutions as discussed in the documents of EMC and my personal experiences and with those component managing groups.

2 Oracle Solutions 01. User Managed Backup and Recovery Management for traditional backup solution. 02. RMAN Managed Backup and Recovery Management to overcome and sophisticate the backup and recovery management. 03. Oracle Advanced Replication Management for high availability. 04. Oracle Streams Managed Backup and Recovery Management for high availability. 05. Data Guard for logical and physical Standby Database Management for disaster management. 06. Logical Backup Management using EXPORT/IMPORT and data pump to manage the backup at a granular level of data subset stored in a table or set of tables to the entire database. 07. Oracle Parallel Server or Real Application Clusters for High Availability 08. Automated Storage Management (ASM) that can take care of storage allocation and de-allocation and high availability solutions 09. Oracle s ability to integrate with EMC s advanced technologies EMC Solutions - EMC Symmertix DMX Each of the DMX Series arrays is based on the EMC's Direct Matrix Architecture, a non-blocking, point-to-point interconnected infrastructure that eliminates buses or switches in the array and instead employs up to 128 direct data paths between channel controllers and global memory. Each of these paths, according to the vendor, are capable of bandwidth processing of up to 1 GB/sec for a total bandwidth metric of 128 GB/sec. The DMX architecture is driven by up to 130 PowerPC processors (1.3 GHz), and utilizes caching technology with access to up to 512 GB of mirrored (256 GB usable) global memory. The platform is built on Fibre Channel Disk architecture with up to 64 drive loops (4-32 redundant pairs) and up to 8 ports per channel director and 96 channel connections and support for connectivity to over 16,000 network hosts. Multiple types of host connections are supported, including Fibre Channel, ESCON, FICON, Gig Ethernet and iscsi; and support is offered for 4 Gb/sec connections (2 GB and 4 GB directors can be mixed and matched in the cabinet). Other features include the vendor's Enginuity operating system for simultaneous connectivity to "...virtually all mainframe, UNIX, Windows, AS/400, and Linux platforms," and HA features including "non-disruptive everything" design allowing for updates to any components--including the Enginuity engine itself--without interrupting data flows. Fully redundant components, including multiple redundant power supplies for connectivity to independent power sources and battery backup for graceful shutdowns in the case of a total power failure are also included. Further protection is provided via support for RAID levels 0, 1, and 10, 5, and 6, global hotspare disks, compensative cooling and environmental monitoring features. The DMX line now includes the DMX-3 (and the entry level DMX-3 950) and the new top-of-the-line model, the DMX-4 (also with an entry level DMX version). The DMX-3 is qualified to scale up to 2,400 drives for over a Peta byte of total (raw) capacity. The DMX-3 also sports up to 64 Fiber Channel host ports/escon channels, 8 replication ports (2 Gb/sec FC), 48 FICON (2 Gb/sec), or 48 iscsi connections.

3 The DMX-3 950, on the other hand, scales these numbers down; supporting up to 128 GB of mirrored global memory (64 GB usable) and shipping in a bay capable of holding up to 120 disks (an expansion bay can add an additional 240 disks, for a maximum of 360 total). The DMX includes 16 Fibre Channel, 8 replication ports, or 10 GigE iscsi ports. The new DMX-4 offerings are similar to the DMX-3, but offer a throughput increase of up to 30 percent (in RAID 5/6 configurations) by way of several improvements, including 4 Gb/sec FC connectivity standard from hosts all the way through to the disk drives (including the FICON and SRDF ports), and a point-to-point FC backend. Additionally, 750 GB SATA II drives are expected to be supported in the DMX-4s in the future (with support for SATA and FC drive mix-n-match). DMX-4 further includes built-in support for RSA envision (in addition to the security features described below). Security features of the DMX line--courtesy of EMC's acquisition of RSA--include the ability to secure service personnel actions (by requiring authentication and then authorizing their actions) on DMX systems; a "tamper proof" audit log for service or management activities; and "Certified Data Erasure," which scrubs data on failed drives prior to their removal from the cabinet. In addition to the disk arrays themselves, EMC offers a line of disk libraries with tape emulation capabilities for backup and recovery operations. The lower end offerings in this family are based on the CLARiiON arrays (see the CLARiiON biefing for more); while the DL6000 series offerings are driven by Symmetrix DMX-3: - DL6100: With dual emulation engines, 12 FC ports, and support for up to 256 VTLs, 2,048 virtual drives, and 128,000 virtual cartridges. The DL6100 includes up to 615 TB of usable capacity and supports aggregate system performance of up to 1,800 MB/sec. - DL6300: Doubles the DL6100 offering (4 engines, 24 ports, 512 VTLs, 4098 v. drives, and 256,000 v. cartridges); with up to 584 TB of usable capacity and aggregate system performance of up to 3,200 MB/sec. The DMX-3 arrays are available now; with the DMX-4 arrays expected to be available in August. Support for 750 GB SATA drives in the DMX-4 is expected to be available later in 2007; and the vendor further notes that support for thin provisioning capabilities is expected to be available in the DMX-4 in 1Q/2008. EMC targets their Symmetrix DMX disk storage arrays specifically to high-end implementations. The new top-of-the-line DMX-4 system is qualified for up to 2,400 drives. EMC Solution Enabler It is a package that contains the SYMAPI runtime libraries and SYMCLI command line interface. SYMCLI is a set of commands that can be invoked at the command prompt or within the scripts. These commands are to monitor device configuration and status and to perform control operations on the devices and data objects within storage complex.

4 EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility (SRDF) SRDF (Symmetrix Remote Data Facility) is a family of EMC products that facilitates the data replication from one Symmetrix storage array to another though a Storage Area Network or IP network. SRDF logically pairs a LUN or a group of LUN from each array and replicates data from one to the other either synchronously or asynchronously. An established pair of LUN can be split, so that separate hosts can access the same data independently (maybe for backup), and then resynchronized. In synchronous mode (SRDF/S), the primary array waits until the secondary array has acknowledged each write before the next write is accepted, ensuring that the replicated copy of the data is always as current as the primary. However, the resultant latency increases significantly with distance. Asynchronous SRDF (SRDF/A) transfers to the secondary array in contained delta sets, which are transferred at defined intervals. Although the remote copy of the data will never be as current as the primary copy, this method can replicate data over considerable distances and with reduced bandwidth requirements. SRDF/Data Mobility (SRDF/DM) Rapidly transfer data from source volumes to remote volumes anywhere in the world, permitting information to be shared, content to be distributed, and information to be consolidated for centralized parallel processing activities. Other forms of SRDF exist to integrate with clustered environments and to manage multiple SRDF pairs where replication of multiple LUN must be consistent (such as with the data files and log files of a database application). VERITAS Volume Manager and SRDF Veritas Volume Manager is a host-based product, while SRDF is an array-based replication product. A host-based volume manager is usually used to create concatenated or striped volumes from a set of disks, as well as creating mirrors of the set of disks locally. Veritas Volume Manager has an optional toolset called Veritas Volume Replicator that works on top of Volume Manager, creating remote mirrors of the local disks to another host licensed with Veritas Volume Manager and Volume Replicator. From a data availability perspective, you can create this remote mirror in a variety of ways, including synchronous and asynchronous. SRDF can also provide remote mirrors that are sync or async, as well as adaptive, which is a certain number of 32K tracks out of phase with the original data set. This is all user-configurable. The key difference here is that Veritas' solution can be used with disparate disk vendor solutions. You can have EMC disk arrays at the primary site and HP disk arrays at the remote site, or even locally connected JBOD storage, while with EMC's SRDF, both ends have to be EMC solutions and similarly configured disks. Veritas Volume Manager and Volume Replicator only care that the amount of disk space is the same, the underlying disk configuration isn't as important. Also, Veritas Volume Manager provides snapshot capabilities and integration with Windows from the host perspective, while SRDF is not aware of anything going on at the host level and requires TimeFinder integration.

5 When considering which to use, think about the specific challenge that is before the organization and lay out the requirements for a solution upfront. Cost and complexity of management are just a couple of the criteria, but you should also look at the requirements of the application data that is being served. Is the data critical to the organization, how fast a recovery is required? If you need sync replication then also look at the network costs and complexity and evaluate accordingly. SRDF family add-on options SRDF/Star Provides advanced multi-site business continuity protection. It enables concurrent SRDF/S and SRDF/A operations from the same source volumes with the ability to incrementally establish an SRDF/A session between the two remote sites in the event of a primary site outage a capability only available with SRDF/Star software. With SRDF/Star, enterprises can quickly resynchronize the SRDF/S and SRDF/A copies by replicating only the differences between the sessions allowing for much faster resumption of business operations after a source site failure. SRDF/Automated Replication Rapid business restart over any distance with advanced single-hop and multi-hop configurations using combinations of TimeFinder/Mirror and SRDF/S and/or SRDF/DM for a no- data-loss solution. SRDF/Cluster Enabler for MSCS High availability and automated failover through storage-based replication and server clustering via SRDF/S with MSCS. SRDF/Consistency Groups Maintain data coherency across an SRDF-based configuration by managing data replication from the source volumes to their corresponding target volumes to ensure data consistency and restartability. SRDF/S - SRDF/A Mode Change A feature that enables host performance improvements and potentially reduces bandwidth requirements when running heavy application workloads. For an interactive understanding of SRDF click on this link EMC TimeFinder TimeFinder helps 01. Business Continuity and High Availability thru Local Replication and Remote Replication. 02. Disaster Recovery TimeFinder family base products: TimeFinder/Clone Highly functional, high performance full volume, point-in-time BCV for backups, online restores, and volume migrations. TimeFinder/Snap Pointer-based, economical, space-saving snapshot BCV for reduced recovery points and fast local data restore.

6 TimeFinder family add-on options: 01. TimeFinder/Mirror Highly available, ultra-performance mirror BCV option for the most demanding environments. 02. TimeFinder/Consistency Groups Maintain data coherency across TimeFinderprotected application volumes to ensure data consistency and restartability. 03. TimeFinder/Exchange Integration Module and TimeFinder SQL Integration Module Integration of the TimeFinder Family with Microsoft Exchange and SQL applications for automated backup and restore. 04. Improve productivity and enhance online business continuity. 05. Create instantly accessible business continuance volumes (BCVs): mirrors, snapshots, or clones. 06. Perform backups quickly, frequently, and without disruption. 07. Reduce time limitations through workload compression. 08. Eliminate job step copies to improve batch processing time. 09. Seamlessly load or update data warehouses. 10. Provide production data for application development testing without scheduling downtime. Click on the following link for an interactive understanding of the TimeFinder Family of EMC products

7 EMC Open Replicator EMC Open Replicator for Symmetrix enables remote point-in-time copies to be used for high-speed data mobility, remote vaulting, migration, and distribution between EMC Symmetrix DMX and qualified storage systems with full or incremental copy capabilities. And because it leverages the high-end Symmetrix storage architecture, Open Replicator offers unmatched deployment flexibility and massive scalability so you can meet mixed service-level requirements with minimal operational impact. Open Replicator is tightly integrated with the EMC TimeFinder and SRDF families of local and remote replication solutions, providing enterprises with highly flexible and lower-cost options for remote protection and migration. It s ideal for applications and

8 environments where economics and infrastructure flexibility outweigh RPO and RTO requirements. Add flexibility within your remote replication and business continuity infrastructure. 01. Protect lower-tier applications at remote locations more cost effectively and flexibly. 02. Reduce TCO by pushing or pulling data from Symmetrix DMX systems to other qualified storage arrays in conventional SAN/WAN environments. 03. Create remote point-in-time copies of local production volumes for many purposes from data vaulting to remote testing and development. 04. Ensure immediate data availability to host applications via Symmetrix DMX consistency technologies. 05. Get cost-effective application restore capabilities with minimal RPO/RTO impact. 06. Enable compliance with industry policies and government mandates through efficient data replication. EMC Change Tracker This URL helps EMC SRM Planning and Provisioning Source: ControlCenter Components for SAN Management, Planning, and Automated Provisioning EMC's SRM Planning and Provisioning suite consists of tools that facilitate the central management, planning, and automated provisioning of heterogeneous SAN resources. A product bundle within the vendor's ControlCenter centralized storage and device management platform, the SRM Planning and Provisioning suite currently consists of the vendor's SAN Manager, Automated Resource Manager, and SAN Advisor applications. SAN Manager provides a centralized tool for the discovery, monitoring, and management of SAN resources. The product allows for the automatic mapping of the SAN topology, displaying the results in high-level or in detail views with both physical device (switches, arrays, HBAs) and logical configuration (LUN Masks, zones) information reported. Central management features of the utility include monitoring and alerting capabilities, zoning capabilities allowing for the centralized creation of logical device subsets, and LUN masking. The Automated Resource Manager component provides the automated, policybased provisioning of SAN resources, including the storage array itself (RAID protection and replication paths), SAN fabric (LUN masking and zoning), and hosts (volume and file management). Policies allow the provisioning process to follow defined business rules and provide options that allow for the specification of the type of storage, allocation pools, protection levels, replication options, and the number of paths between storage and servers. Key to the automated provisioning process is the ability to manage storage allocation pools, which are groups of LUNs that can span

9 multiple storage arrays and can be defined by geography, performance, or other business-defined parameters. Finally, the SAN Advisor component is primarily a SAN change management and validation tool, allowing for both the initial validation of the existing SAN (by importation and examination of data collected in ControlCenter) and for the creation of action plans to implement desired changes. SAN Advisor validates SAN configurations against nearly 150 best practice rules, which are facilitated via the vendor's EMC E-Lab Support Matrix, an online storage interoperability and best practices database. The vendor notes that updates to this and "other SAN best practices" are sent monthly to the software for use in its analysis. In addition to its ability to validate existing SAN configurations, SAN Advisor also allows for "what-if" analysis by allowing the user to model changes to the SAN environment in the software. From this modeled environment users can also generate action plans detailing the actual work to be done to implement the proposed changes, and, after the changes have been deployed, the ability to validate that the changes have indeed been carried out according to specifications. New to the latest SAN Advisor release is support for zoning enhancements, and support for customization of the rules engine. The new zone configuration support allows the admin to validate and simulate changes to existing zones; while the rules engine customization support allows the admin to selectively validate specific areas of the SAN. The SRM Planning and Provisioning suite joins the vendor's (EMC) SRM Monitoring and Reporting and Device Management suites in the ControlCenter family EMC ControlCenter For an interactive session please visit: Device management SRM Planning and provisioning Heterogeneous Storage Management

10 EMC PowerPath Source EMC PowerPath is a server-resident solution that enhances performance and application availability. It automatically tunes the storage area network (SAN) when it detects imbalances by selecting alternate paths for the data to be routed through. It also combines multiple path I/O capabilities, automatic load balancing, and path failover functions into one integrated package. PowerPath supports servers including cluster servers connected to EMC Symmetrix, EMC CLARiiON, Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) Lightning, HP XP, IBM Enterprise Storage Server (Shark), and HPQ storage systems.

11 The following table lists features and benefits Features Multiple paths Automatic load-balancing Centralized management Automatic I/O path failure detection Automated path management Dynamic reconfiguration Dynamic configuration options Benefits Enhance application availability and optimize performance. Improve efficiency and throughput. Simplify the management of heterogeneous storage with a single solution. Keep applications running and information flowing in the event of failure. Manage more storage with fewer resources. Reduce planned outages to restore services with automatic online path recovery Relieve system administration workload. Sources: 01. EMC documents Charles Harris, Manager Storage Administration TFS who helped with lot of docs. 04. HP Service Guard Documentation Veritas Volume Manager Documentation